CFD Study of Heat Transfer near and at the Wall of a Fixed Bed Reactor Tube: Effect of Wall Conduction

The inclusion of conduction in the tube wall of a packed bed reactor tube under conditions typical of steam reforming was studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to obtain detailed flow and temperature fields in a representative wall segment of the tube for packings of spheres, full cylinders, and cylinders with internal voids. The average wall temperature was not affected by the inclusion of wall conduction. Radial temperature profiles in the bed were also unaffected by wall conduction, but the temperature distribution on the wall changed considerably. The inclusion of wall conduction narrowed the distribution of temperatures on the tube wall, suppressing extreme temperatures. The simulations predicted that a wide enough temperature range would persist on the tube wall to have significant implications for tube life.